EU Election Observation a Tool for Building Stable Secure Democracies

Abstract

Election observation is a tool for democracy development and thus an important instrument in advancing stability and security. Election monitoring activities rose to prominence in the early 1990s as states of Eastern Europe after the fall of communism were holding their first free elections. Election monitoring has become a complex activity with many defining actors in the international arena. Genuine democratic elections are an important and integral part of democracies and as such are also essential to provide for more stable and secure countries, regions and in fact a safer world. Although development cooperation and democracy building were the prime aim of election monitoring activities it must also be noted that such activities may positively influence the post-election behaviour of all relevant actors, as these tendencies have been observed in political science researches. The aim of the paper is however to examine the matter from a legal perspective presenting the European Union’s regulatory structure regarding election observation. The European Union is one of the most prominent organisers of such activities with detailed legal regulation on the matter. EU regulations in this field are also of great importance due to the fact that they serve as a basis and inspiration of further international legislation of election observation missions. The detailed legal instruments of the EU were created at the end of the 1990s, early 2000s thus before the work began on the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, which is a document elaborated in 2005. The European Union is one of the most important actors in development cooperation and has been aiming at increasing its importance in international politics, thus the legal regulation of EU election observation as a tool of democracy building is directly linked to security in the instable regions of our world.